best SD Card?

[s0lid]

Hey Guys,

What's the best SD Card you used with RPi?

Care to share the specs?

[JoeDaStudd]

Entirely depends on what your planning on using it for.

[A Future Pilot]

Smaller cards are usually slightly faster (though not by a whole lot). A Transcend 8GB class 10 is really good. (Always try to get a class 10, since they're the fastest.)

[BuntuFreak]

Dang! I got a good deal on a 8GB and completely forgot to check the "class". Now I see it is a 4.

So what are we suggesting here? Simply return and buy class 10? I just plan to use my Pi as a media center, and not to any heavy lifting. Am I good with a class 4?

[raspberrypiguy1]

Don't worry about the class! Changes are SO minimal... You won't notice ANY difference! Class 4 is great.... Thats what my one is!

The Raspberry Pi Guy

[Dweeber]

I buy lots of Kingston 16 GB Class 4 MicroSDHC Flash Card with SD Adapter SDC4/16GB's

I've never had a problem with them and speed is more than sufficient.

Most of them were $9ea .. I see they are back up to $11 but they will drop again. I have a bunch of them including some unopened since my last purchase.

[JollyRoger]

Other threads on this forum indicate that Class 10 is not necessarily best for the Pi, and I have found a large variation in speed between brands, with Integra ultima Class 10 being particularly slow (though probably fast in a camera, for which it was designed). I have a Class 6 (Sandisk) which is pretty fast, but my fastest in the Pi is an old (3 year old) Transcend 4gb card which doesn't have any class printed on it, but simply says "x133".

[redhawk]

The best SD card would depend on your needs, speed and required capacity personally I would avoid unbranded memory cards and if you buy from eBay make sure they're selling the genuine product.
SD cards come in different speeds i.e. Class 10, 6, 4 etc personally I think Class 10 is overkill and certainly doesn't justify the extra cost.
It's also worth noting that all memory cards have limited write cycles and therefore wear out and eventually fail over time.

Do you really want to purchase an expensive 32GB class 10 memory card when you're effectively only using 8GB of storage??

As for me I have a Kingston 8GB Class 4 Micro SD + adapter memory card it was only 4 quid on eBay and I have been using it for months without a single problem.

Richard S.

[prioryjim]

I have an old class 4 4G card ( from my video recorder ).
It went read only , I think the tab fell off.
So I doctored it with some sticky tape.
It won't fit back in the video recorder.
But fits the PI OK.
I loaded raspbmc and it works a treat.
Seems to whinge a bit as it boots !

Jim

[itimpi]

I have a large variety of cards from different manufacturers and of different Class ratings. My experience suggests that the responsiveness of the Pi closely correlates with how these cards test for random read and write performance. The Class rating is based on sustained serial write speeds - not the random access mode of working.. You often find that card with low class ratings outperform the higher class rating in the random access type of test.

[rayburn]

Interesting thread. I have just purchased a Sandisk 16Gb Class 10 for £8 from Play.com, amd now I find out that Class 10 may not be the fastest in a Pi.... Never mind, I just hope that it will work, the Pi is on its way and I am eagerly anticipating it!

[vilelord]

Please see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sdx ... 940-9.html RE random read/write access.

[achapman]

I have been using a class 6 16Gb card. I thought I read somewhere that the Pi didn't like some class 10 cards. Is the a limit on the size and speed you can use?

[NickMich]

I'm also curious about this. I received my RPi yesterday, and now I'm looking for a suitable SD card. Redhawk can you elaborate on your statement:

Do you really want to purchase an expensive 32GB class 10 memory card when you're effectively only using 8GB of storage??

Maybe I missed something as to the RPi's maximum memory capabilities.

Currently I'm between a Transcend 16GB or 8GB both class 10. Any words of advice?

Thanks,
NickMich

[ludespeedny]

I love my 8gb Transcend class 10, I use it for RaspBMC and have my sources on a network share.

[hop]

I'm using the Samsung SD card that is sold on ModMyPi, and it works great!

https://www.modmypi.com/shop/sd-cards-a ... n-linux-os

[Dweeber]

$6 US - 8GB - Prime Free Shipping
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-microSDH ... B001CQT0X4

MicroSDHC card so it can be used in other devices. Comes with full sized SDcard adapter. Class 4 more than speedy enough in the RPi.

[SN]

I picked up a 64Gb SDXC card from mymemory the other week for just £23 - I am currently using it in my new laptop to double its SSD storage
Has anyone tried a card this big in the Pi yet?

[indi]

Smaller cards are usually slightly faster (though not by a whole lot). A Transcend 8GB class 10 is really good. (Always try to get a class 10, since they're the fastest.)

I bought two of these to use with my Pi and I can't get them to fire up, there's a few people recommending them in this thread, so has anyone got any ideas?

I'm trying to use XBian 1.0 Alpha 3, which I've seen work on my Pi using my mate's class 6 SD card, but it won't work for me using this SD Card.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

[A Future Pilot]

What exactly is it doing?

[indi]

Nothing basically. When I turn the power on the green light comes on for a second then goes off only to flash for a split-second a second or two later then nothing at all. Nothing whatsoever comes up on-screen.

I've just tried Raspbian (Wheezy) on the same card and it boots up, so it's not the card itself. Must be a combination of Xbian and the card, because I've seen the same download of Xbian working on another card.

Any ideas about what to try to get Xbian working on this card or should I just look for an alternative to Xbian or buy an alternative card?

[indi]

Seems that it's simply Alpha 3 it doesn't like as Alpha 2 works fine.

[stevhorn5]

I'll through in my 2 cents...

I, too, am of the mind that the class ratings means little. I have a variety of cards, from class 2 to 10, and I've found that the most reliable card I have is an old Sandisk class 2 - 2GB card. Next is a Transcend class 10 - 16GB card. I've been a supporter of Kingston products for years (ram, flash drives) but have had nothing but trouble with their sd cards on the RPi. This includes 2 class 4 - 4GB cards and a class 10 - 8GB (which is so slow that it takes forever to boot anything). I have 2 other class 4 Kingston cards which are fine.

Due to the nature of these cards, my advice is to review the wiki for 'working' cards, then buy the cheapest, 8 or 16 GB card you can find regardless of class.

http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... g_SD_cards

[indi]

So this is all a bit weird now. Alpha 2 worked straight off, but trying to update it to alpha 3 didn't work (ie it stayed as alpha 2), but on a whim I decided to give it another go with alpha 3 and put it on the card which had previously not worked, but that I'd got Raspbian to work on, and now it works.

No idea what's going on.

[fourdee4d]

Hey Guys,

What's the best SD Card you used with RPi?

Care to share the specs?

Iam using a MicroSDHC 8GB class 10 Transcend card, with, of course, a MicroSD adapter
works a treat!